Monday, November 18, 2013

Tips for Surveying Staff Satisfaction – Part 3

October 7th marked the release of my sixth book entitled “Following the Leader – Executive Succession for Your Nonprofit” Please visit our website for to check out the Table of Contents and Sample Chapter.

Tips for Surveying Staff Satisfaction – Part 3

This is the third of three blog posts covering a total of ten powerful tips for surveying employee engagement or satisfaction. The term “employee engagement” appears to be replacing “staff satisfaction” in much of the human resource literature. However, a leopard doesn’t change its spots! Staff satisfaction surveys and employee engagement surveys usually cover the same turf. Employee satisfaction is the single most important factor that determines future employee retention. Satisfaction (or morale or engagement) is a measurable outcome of your management, administrative and supervisory practices and policies.

Conducting regular (annual is recommended) surveys of employee satisfaction is a recommended “best practice” in nonprofit organizations. When did your agency conduct its last survey? Is it time for another one?

Tip # 8 Use electronic survey response systems. I’m a fan of SurveyMonkey which is easy to use, cost effective and helps reassure people that their responses are confidential and anonymous. Remember that not everyone has access to a computer nor is everyone comfortable using one. This means that you will need to make paper surveys available in addition to electronic surveys.

Tip # 9 A response rate of at least 50% of all employees is necessary for you to have confidence that the results are representative of all employees in the organization. Offer incentives (a $5.00 gift card) for employees who complete and return their surveys.

Tip # 10 Quality data analysis and summary of the results makes or breaks all surveys. If you don’t have a math whiz on staff, consider contracting with an external consultant or project staff to ensure that all our hard work designing your survey is rewarded to a top notch summary of the results.

Contact Paula at [email protected] for more information on how we can help you with your next Employee Satisfaction Survey!